1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to reduced gloss thermoplastic compositions, gloss reducing additives, and processes for making the compositions and additives, and more particularly relates to improved color reduced gloss thermoplastic compositions and gels of rigid copolymers, and processes for making the improved color gels and compositions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Low gloss compositions comprising a polymer blend of a polycarbonate and an emulsion grafted ABS polymer, and a low gloss enhancing amount of a poly(epoxide) are known, see Jalbert et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,026,777 which is incorporated herein by reference. Single step compounding however can result in undesired side reactions, including side reactions of the polyepoxide with additional ingredients such as phosphite stabilizers and some organic and metal pigments which may affect product consistency and quality.
Low gloss compositions comprising a polymer blend of a polycarbonate, an emulsion grafted ABS polymer, and a gloss reducing amount of gels formed from cross-linking a rigid acrylonitrile polymer can exhibit undesired levels of yellowness. For example, where such gels are formed by reacting acrylonitrile polymer with a polyepoxide in the presence of an acid, the resultant gel composition exhibits undesirably high levels of yellowness, and thus the final blend composition of polycarbonate, emulsion grafted ABS polymer, and acrylonitrile gels, exhibits an undesirably high level of yellowness.
Consequently, there is a desire to provide a process for making acrylonitrile gels which results in acrylonitrile gels which exhibit reduced levels of yellowness.